Monday, April 20, 2015

Melog Rankings: Post-Monte Carlo 2015

April is here, which means the weather is warming up, it's raining all the time, and the tennis season has shifted onto European clay. It's always been one of Rafael Nadal's best months; last year was the first time in a decade that he went without a title in April. Let's see how the first part of this year's fourth month has changed things.

Rank

Player

Melog

Rank change

Melog change

1

Novak Djokovic

60.7

0

1.2

2

Roger Federer

34.2

0

-3.7

3

Andy Murray

25.3

0

-0.1

4

Rafael Nadal

24.5

0

-0.4

5

Kei Nishikori

20.7

0

-0.6

6

David Ferrer

18.6

0

-0.9

7

Tomas Berdych

18.0

1

1.8

8

Milos Raonic

16.9

-1

-0.7

9

Grigor Dimitrov

11.0

2

0.5

10

Gael Monfils

10.7

0

0.1

11

Stan Wawrinka

9.9

-2

-2.8

12

David Goffin

9.3

0

0.8

13

Marin Cilic

7.2

0

-0.3

14

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

6.7

0

-0.6

15

Roberto Bautista Agut

5.9

0

0.1

16

Gilles Simon

5.8

0

0.2

17

Kevin Anderson

5.5

1

0.2

18

Tommy Robredo

5.1

-1

-0.2

19

Richard Gasquet

4.8

0

-0.1

20

Jack Sock

4.3

3

0.9

21

Sam Querrey

4.2

0

0.5

22

Philipp Kohlschreiber

3.7

-2

-0.5

23

John Isner

3.7

1

0.4

24

Bernard Tomic

3.1

1

-0.2

25

Viktor Troicki

3.1

1

-0.1

26

Andreas Seppi

2.9

1

-0.3

27

Adrian Mannarino

2.9

-5

-0.5

28

Ivo Karlovic

2.6

9

0.3

29

Gilles Muller

2.5

2

0.0

30

Jeremy Chardy

2.5

9

0.5

31

Fernando Verdasco

2.5

-3

-0.6

32

Nick Kyrgios

2.5

-3

-0.2

33

Leonardo Mayer

2.4

0

0.0

34

Juan Monaco

2.4

-4

-0.1

35

Alexandr Dolgopolov

2.3

1

0.0

36

Pablo Cuevas

2.2

-4

-0.3

37

Marcos Baghdatis

2.1

5

0.3

38

Ernests Gulbis

2.1

-4

-0.3

39

Steve Darcis

2.0

-1

-0.2

40

Feliciano Lopez

1.9

0

-0.1

41

Martin Klizan

1.8

6

0.3

42

Nicolas Almagro

1.7

-7

-0.7

43

Simone Bolelli

1.7

1

0.0

44

Julien Benneteau

1.7

8

0.5

45

Ivan Dodig

1.6

3

0.1

46

Jiri Vesely

1.5

-1

-0.1

47

Radek Stepanek

1.3

-6

-0.7

48

Vasek Pospisil

1.3

3

0.0

49

Steve Johnson

1.2

-3

-0.4

50

Carlos Berlocq

1.2

-1

-0.2

The headline this week was Novak Djokovic's title in Monte Carlo, which made him the first player ever to sweep the season's first three Masters events. Throw in the Australian Open title, and he's off to just about the best start you can have in tennis - and his still-climbing rating reflects that.

There's more movement than usual in the upper echelon this week, starting with sharp declines from Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka. Last year's Monte Carlo finalists both lost in the round of 16 this time around, which is responsible for part of their slide; the rest of it comes from the disappearance of Switzerland's second-round victory in the Davis Cup last year from the data set. On the flip side, Tomas Berdych made it to his first Masters final in three years, and was the only player to take a set from Djokovic this week, and therefore climbs sharply.

Most of the movement lower in the rankings is rather subdued, largely because Monte Carlo was dominated by high-ranked players; 15 of the 16 seeds advanced to the round of 16. There are small increases from Jack Sock and Martin Klizan, who captured the titles in Houston and Casablanca the week before last. Oddly enough, though, the two biggest jumps came from players who didn't take the court at all over the last fortnight - Ivo Karlovic climbed nine spots, Julien Benneteau eight. Both of them took bad losses last year in matches that are no longer under consideration, and move up as a result.

The biggest decline of the week doesn't show up in the table; that's because Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who last year won the Casablanca title and made the quarterfinals in Monte Carlo, dropped 17 spots and out of the top 50 entirely. He's joined in his departure by Donald Young; their spots were taken by Benneteau and Vasek Pospisil.

Clay season continues for this month and next. The next two weeks will see action from most of the top 10, and the week after that will bring the Madrid Masters into play. We'll update the rankings again after Madrid, partly because there are five weeks before the French Open so we have to have a 3-week gap at some point, and partly because I'll be out of town two weeks from now.